Why are people scared of spiders?

[T_Bone]

@boot

Wow! Nasty story! Nasty Abcess!! Those infections that spread out along your arteries are dangerous! If they just happen to "pop" the wrong way, instant blood poisoning, and all sorts of nasty things can happen as a result, like an abcess forming in your brain.

Nasty nasty nasty!

8 legs = EVIL!

http://www.brownreclusespider.net

EVIL!!!



Glad everything turned out ok, scary stuff!

[T_Bone]

PMC wrote:
Well, our Australasian and American cousins obviously have more reason to fear spiders than we pampered Europeans.  Has anyone seen the the pictures from Iraq of the Camel Spiders?  They look suspiciously fake, like someone has pasted the head of an ant onto the body of a spider using photoshop.

Camel spiders are real, although technically they're scorpions I believe.

[T_Bone]

PMC wrote:

T_Bone wrote:


Camel spiders are real, although technically they're scorpions I believe.

Pics?

I've posted them before in another camel spider thread, but they're all over google ;-)
There's one picture floating around that's actually two spiders, with one halfway eaten by the other.

"Solifugae (Camel Spider)
by Mike Southey *

There is a large number of arachnid species in UAE but perhaps none has more respect in the popular imagination as the solifugae, or camel spider. There is an excellent example (under glass) in the Group's Workroom.

These creatures are nocturnal, spending days in a tiny burrow or hole which it has dug itself. They are unlikely to be encountered in the colder months, but during the warmer period of the year they can infest some areas. Members report being "overrun" by camel spiders while camping in gravelly desert south of AI Wagan, on the Al Ain - Al Liwa road. The spiders were apparently attracted by firelight and moved extremely fast, running over soft sand, hard-packed gravel, or bodies, with equal ease.

This species possesses no poison and relies on strength and speed. It is carnivorous and lives on a diet of insects, spiders, scorpions and small lizards. It is so voracious that it will feed until it is too bloated to move effectively. Prey is held between the forceps of the Chelicerae and chewed with such vigour that a solifugae eating a beetle can be heard over a distance of several metres.

Camel spiders are not harmful to humans, and will only bite by accident. However, they are very pugnacious and fight fiercely with scorpions, centipedes and with each other. It is perhaps their speed that has instilled more fear than they deserve.

Mating habits are different from those of other arachnids. The male courts the female by stroking her with his pedipalpi and forelegs. This reduces her to a passive state, as if anaesthetized, whereupon the male lays her on her side. Raising his body he ejects a mass of spermatozoa onto the ground, picks it up with his chelicerae and forces it into the vagina. He closes the opening and waits a few moments and then hurriedly departs before the female has a chance to grab and eat him.

Until now I have not been able to keep solifugae for more than a few weeks. Food supply may be the problem as fresh mincemeat dancing on the end of a length of cotton does not deceive a self-respecting camel spider indefinitely. Any suggestions on studying them in captivity would be welcomed.

* Mike Southey is the Group Recorder for Arachnids and Scorpions and is keen to receive any specimens, dead or alive"

[T_Bone]

PMC wrote:

T_Bone wrote:

"...and then hurriedly departs before the female has a chance to grab and eat him."

Damn, I've dated her too!

Seriously though, they aren't as scary as the recent flurry of email ciculars might suggest - being non-poisonous and only eating insects, arachnids and small reptiles.  
 

The scary part comes when you notice their behavior...

They don't like sunlight, and will do whatever possible to remain in the shade, and they are NOT human shy...

So if you happen to uncover one by accidentally exposing one to sunlight, it will RUN right towards you trying to steal your shadow! Those suckers run FAST! 10 MPH, and if you run it will CHASE you! (it's still trying to get your shadow)

If you fall, it will try to get under you (since your shadow disappeared), at which point you are in danger of hurting it and getting accidentally bitten.

Add to that, any big m*** f*** spider that can jump *3 feet vertically* scares the crap out of me!

I'd be screaming my fool head off being chased by one of those!

 :lol:

[T_Bone]

X-ray wrote:
We get those spiders in South Africa too, we call them Red Romans.

http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Spider/arachnid.html

A friend of mine went out on a field trip and they had to spend a few nights in a thatched bungalow. All night he could hear the tapping of spider legs on the rafters above and every now and then there would be a hard thump as one landed on him on his bed. They apparently jump off the rafters trying to get moths.

Wouldn't like to get the specimen in the photo on my head. He looks to be about 20cm long.

OMFG there would be a T_Bone shaped hole in the wall if I were there sleeping in that bungalow!!!  :lol:

(I tried to find a cartoonish image of a human shaped hole in a wall, and came up with nada.)